Boteva & Kantutis Law Office Newsletter August 2015
Consumers Protection Act
On 28 July 2015 in State Gazette issue 57/2015 were published the latest amendments to the Consumers Protection Act. The main purpose of the amendments was the transposition of Directive 2013/11/EU on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the ADR Directive) and the facilitation of the application of Regulation 524/2013 (The ODR Regulation) on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes.
The suggested amendments set the primary criteria for establishment of ADR entities and ADR procedures which should apply to disputes between consumers and traders. Disputes between traders, as well as, for instance, trader-against-consumer, related to health services complaints or state university system institutions complaints, shall not fall in the scope of the new provisions of the law.
The newly adopted rules shall apply to out-of-court dispute resolution concerning domestic contractual obligations originating from both online and offline sales or service agreements between consumers and traders, and cross-border disputes originating from online sales or service agreements.
The Minister of Economy shall be competent to approve the compliance of the ADR entities with the applicable legislation as well as to establish general conciliation committees and sector conciliation committees to act as ADR entities. Thegeneral conciliation committees shall resolve domestic and cross-border disputes between consumers and traders related to sale and service agreements, in connection with guarantee liability, unfair trade practices, tourist services, etc. The sector conciliation committees shall assist in the resolution of domestic and cross-border disputes related to the energy, water and sewerage services, electronic communications and postal services, transport and financial services.
The ADR procedures shall be optional and it shall be within the discretion of the parties involved whether to file a complaint with the ADR entity or directly with the court. The parties shall not be prevented from initiating court proceedings upon completion of an ADR procedure and in this regard pursuant to the law any prescription periods shall stop running during the ADR procedure.
The ODR Regulation applies to out-of-court dispute resolution concerning contractual obligations originating from online sales or services agreements between consumers and traders. In compliance with the Regulation the European Commission shall develop the ODR platform which shall facilitate the independent, transparent, effective, fast and fair resolution of the referred to disputes. Disputes arising from online transactions shall be referred to the platform, which shall then transfer the case to an appropriate ADR entity. It is anticipated that the ODR platform will be launched in January 2016.
As a result of the new legislative updates traders which sell goods or services online shall be required to provide on their website information and link referring to the ODR platform. Consumers should also be provided with information about the respective ADR entities by which those traders are covered and applicable terms and conditions therein.
Labour Code
New amendments to the Bulgarian Labour Code were promulgated with State Gazette, Issue 54/2015 and entered into force as of 17th of July 2015. They are part of the purposive campaign of the business organizations for diminution of the administrative burden for the employers and concern a large variety of topics in the labour field.
The law provides for a completely new type of employment contract, i.e. one-day employment contract that may be concluded between a worker and a registered agricultural producer. This contract may be concluded for seasonal, non-qualified agricultural work and its length cannot exceed 90 days per calendar year. The employment under such type of employment contract shall not be considered as a length of service.
The employers shall no longer be obliged to prepare and adopt schedules for the use of annual paid leave for the following calendar year.
The employers shall be obliged to create a record for every employee and keep in it all the documents related to the existence of the employment relationship.
The law provides for new amendments regarding the postponement of annual paid leave. The employer shall have the right to postpone the use of annual paid leave of the employee due to important business processes. However, he shall be obliged to provide for a possibility for the employee to use at least half of the annual paid leave for the respective year. Employees shall also be entitled to postpone their annual paid leave when they use another authorized type of leave or upon written request to the employer and his explicit consent.
New grounds for termination of labour contracts in favour of both the employer and the employee have been provided in Art. 327 and 328 of the Labour Code.
Both parties shall be entitled to terminate the labour relationship upon acquiring right of pension due to retirement age. The employer shall be obliged to terminate the labour contract with one-month prior notice, whereas the employee shall be entitled to terminate it with immediate effect.
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